Rhubarb Crisp

Iowa City Farmer's Market is back!! As promised by the apple pie post, I did indeed buy a bunch of rhubarb, though I decided to be responsible make some rhubarb crisp instead of a pie (pie takes too much time when I should be studying for finals.

In addition to the rhubarb, I also found some asparagus (which will be appearing soon in a pasta recipe!) and herbs for my deck. I went with cilantro, parsley and lemon balm. Truthfully, I thought the lemon balm was lemon basil... anybody know what to do with lemon balm??

Right, back to the crisp. This is a fairly easy dessert to make, and is fantastically satisfying. The sour of the rhubarb is nicely matched by the sugar and the crumbly top adds a nice texture. This recipe is actually a compilation of a few different ones, which is why it's taken me a bit to post this -- I was trying different options to decide on my favorite one. Hope you like it!

Rhubarb Crisp

3 1/2 cups chopped rhubarb
1/8 - 1/4 cup sugar (depending on taste)
3 Tbs all-purpose flour

For crumble:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter, in slices at room temperature

*Preheat oven to 350º

1. Wash and chop rhubarb into 1/2-1" size pieces.
2. Mix with sugar and flour. Let it sit while making the crumble topping.
3. Mix the sugars, oats, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together.
4. Using a pastry cutter, or a butter knife (or your *clean* fingers), mix the butter into the dry mixture until it's well mixed and creates a crumble.
5. Pour the rhubarb into a 9" lightly greased pie pan, then top with the crumble.
6. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes, or until rhubarb is bubbly and tender.